About The Artist

Hello! I am a fine arts painter, with a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. My primary painting medium is oil and alkyd, and mostly I work in a representational style. My greatest challenge as a painter is to capture the effect of light; and my greatest joy as a painter is to accomplish that. Many thanks to those readers who have been following this blog since Day 1 (May 19, 2008). To those who are visiting for the first time today...Welcome, and thanks for dropping by!

Monday, April 24, 2017

Route 66 Show: Sneak Peek #4

Original painting by Carol L. Adamec:Escape from the Den of Death, 2016, oil on gessoed panel, 8"x12"

Well, we are getting closer to opening night (this Thursday) at the KiMo Theatre Art Gallery! The artwork is up on the walls, and labels will be installed tomorrow. I've had a lot of fun doing this exhibit—and today's post of an old abandoned snake pit in Moriarty, New Mexico, discovered while just driving around, is an example.

Of course, there wasn't just a snake pit out in the middle of nowhere. There had been an trading post on that site too, called The Hitching Post, that offered gas, refreshment, and curios to Route 66 travelers.

While enjoying a cool beverage visitors could experience a roadside thrill—a concrete box covered with wire grating, filled with diamondback rattlesnakes, called "The Den of Death." At the bottom of the pit was a sign encouraging lookers to toss a few coins in and make a wish to come true...and adding a little more income to the trading post proprietor's operation.

Over the winter the snakes were allowed to freeze to death. In the spring, a new batch of rattlers was captured and put in the snake pit—except for the ones shown in this painting—the ones that got away.